Maxim Kruglov’s blog post, 26.04.2023

Photo: Maxim Kruglov / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Maxim Loktev, the Chief Military Enlistment Officer of Moscow, contradicted himself in his response to my deputy’s inquiry: Moscow military registration and enlistment offices do not use the city’s video surveillance system to spy on conscripts, he wrote to me, although he publicly said the opposite a week ago.

“To determine the place of residence of the conscript, video surveillance systems of the city of Moscow are used …”, Colonel Loktev said then (quote from TASS).

And here goes his own quote in response to my inquiry, where I asked him if there were any legal grounds for such practices of surveillance: “The Military Registration and Enlistment Office of Moscow does not use the city video surveillance systems specified in your request,” runs the reply of the minimalist – Chief Military Enlistment Officer, who managed to put his answer in one short sentence.

Where do you think he told the truth?

Perhaps, formally, the surveillance system is used not by the military registration and enlistment offices, but by the structures of the Mayor’s Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Mr. Loktev also mentioned his close cooperation with them on this matter. All this is just casuistics. If there were legal grounds, the Chief Military Enlistment Officer would have certainly mentioned them. But he simply had nothing to say, because there were no such grounds.

Thus, he had to contradict himself.

I will send a request to the Department of Information Technology of the Mayor’s Office and hope to get a more detailed answer from them.

MAXIM KRUGLOV

is a member of the Federal Bureau of the Yabloko Party,

Deputy Chairman of the Moscow branch of Yabloko.

Head of the Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma. Candidate of Political Sciences.